download zeebox, free and feel like the captain of your tv. hi, everybody. the candidates, your money and the election. the power of the presidency. what obama or romney would mean to the markets or economy. then the bombshell accusations by a banker turned whistle employeer. my interview with greg smith about why he left one of the most prestigious firms in world and the charges he makes. and cooking up the formula for success for small businesses. "wall street journal" report begins right now. >> here's a look at what's making news as we head into a new week. some encouraging news about the economy.

the cross domestic product grew up 2%. the broadest overall measure. economists were expecting a growth rate of 1.8%, the number booming by increase in spending and stronger housing market. the dow falling nearly 250 points on tuesday after poor earnings news an the market was plate later in the week. big multinationals did not farewell. guidance was light. boeing and proctor and gamble beat expectations. among technology and internet company, yahoo! and facebook beat expectations -- the company introducing the ipad mini, smaller and lighter than the full size ipad and listing for

$329. two big product launches from microsoft, a new operating system, windows 8, and its new tablet. it's been anything but a strong earnings season so far. what effect will the elections are have on the market and the economy. joining me now is bob dahl. thanks for joining us. let's talk first about earnings. how would you characterize the earnings season so far? >> mixed at best. the expectations have been lowered, more companies on average are beating those. also hinted the revenue line is disappointing. and i add on top of that, it looks like analysts expectations for the fourth quarter and next year are on the high side. >> so, they have to come down. do you think that's priced into the market?

will disappointments continue to affect stock prices? >> the stock market is up year to date, which means the valuation or pe levels have moved up. so, it's this tug of war between are earnings good enough and in this muddled economy we continue to see, it has to be the question we're asking. profit margins can't be sustained at these levels if revenue growth's not there. >> so, do you think this is a company specific story or jus slow down as a result of the global economy? we know things have slowed down quite a bit outside the united states as well. >> there are enough companies have tripped, as you hinted, geography doesn't matter. companies that are primarily domestic tend to be having better earnings reports than those that have significant businesses outside the u.s. >> meanwhile, here we are just a few days away from the

presidential leelection. what would a romney presidency mean versus an obama re-election? >> we have to start by saying that it's so close that uncertainty is killing everybody. gee, what happens if we don't know the next morning? it's going to mean probably neither candidate has a mandate, so we are going to need more compromise and have more lagger heads and more polarization. >> we haven't seen these two sides get together. they are unable to get together. we've got the fiscal cliff looming, so why would it be better in the next four years in terms of getting things done? >> the optimist says okay, if it's mitt romney, he was a republican governor and figured out thousand get it done. if president obama is elected. he's got to worry about his legacy and maybe do some things

and say let's not just look at each other with nasty faces. >> who's right? >> that switch, if you go back sir months ago was just the opposite. businesses were doing okay. consume er struggling. 2% real gdp, we just got that at the end of the week on top of 2.4 in 2010. 2.0 last year. first three quarters of this year, averaging 1.7. 2% growth. >> what about the housing market, bob? it feels like it's doing better than the overall economy. feels like it's on the rebound. how important is that and do you believe we are seeing an improvement in housing? >> i think the last part, we are seeing a slow bump in housing. it is part of the reason why the consumer is feeling better. i think housing is key. remember, housing, mortgaging, credit, almost did us in a few

years ago and so, that feeling slowly is a good thing. >> let's talk fed for a moment. this week, the federal reserve left interest rates unchanged. said it would continue to buy mortgage-backed securities at $40 billion a month. qe continues here. any surprises there from the fed? >> zero. they did almost nothing. i think they'll be watching and waiting to see what is the impact of this 40 billion a month and the other things you put on the list. i think the fed is going to continue to do what it's doing and that may not be for a few more months. >> and now, we're getting word that ben bernanke may not stand for a second term as fed chairman in 2014. mitt romney has said he won't reappoint bernanke. is the fed in danger of being politici politicized? >> i think the question is has the fed already been politicized. let's see if we can get back to

the government leaving it alone. i wish the fiscal policymakers would work on fiscal policy and not point the finger, but only time will tell. >> so, given all of this, how do you want to invest in this environment? >> pick carefully. i think you needy verseification in these kind of environment. don't have all of anything. that means don't sell all of your bonds, even though rates are low. be careful of your duration. on the equities side, if you've enjoyed some of the profits so far this year, maybe take a little off the table. if you're still waiting an waiting, dollar cost average in, i think you need to have some exposure in various categories. >> good insight, as always. thanks very much. >> thank you. up next on "the wall street journal" report, the banker whose letter of resignation made the editorial page of t"the new

york times." and later, small businesses employ awe half o of all americans. what this year's political climate means for the balance sheets for those businesses. as we take a break, take a look at how the stock market ended the week.

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anything that makes us review our processes is not a lost exercise. >> that was lloyd blang fine on the charmgs of the employee who quit. greg smith described out of touch bangers referring to clients as quote, muppets. goldman says it's not true.

this week, smith published a new week about his experience. i asked greg smith about money and muppets. what do you think it means to call somebody a muppet? i mean, and they say they can't find any evidence that they called anybody a muppet. this is like your word against their word. >> i would say a couple of things. there was an e-mail where a client was called a muppet. but verbally, i saw it over and over again. it's someone who's not a friendly puppet. it's someone you can take advantage of or manipulate or pull strings. in my mind, they are searching on going on a muppet hunt. it's not about name calling. everyone calls someone a name. wall street's a tough place. it's the reason you're calling them a muppet they should be

investigating. why was a teacher's refirmt fund sold. why didn't we use the client's information of what the market's doing to place our own bet. >> a lot of attention has been paid to your book, the media as well. in a statement to cnbc -- and directly opposite to the culture we work hard to foster. we conducted a thorough review. it found no evidence to support its claim, but found mr. smith frustrated about his career. how accurate is your memoir? goldman says you weren't being paid enough. >> the first thing you have to ask yourself is by goldman attacking me as hard as they are and actually not even addressing the issues i've raised, you have to ask yourself is there something they don't want coming out? i saw someone quoting saying

goldman was relieved about what was in my book. if people in the country outside of wall street read this book, they won't find things like ripping of pension funds or betting against your clients or selling complex products that filphilanthropists don't understand. look what the market is telling you. look where stockholders are valuing goldman sachs, morgan stanley, jpmorgan. a lot of these companies are trading below liquidation, which tells you even investors don't like this business model. >> after you resigned and hit that send button, did you feel any moment of oh, my god, what did i just do? >> i actually felt very proud. what i wanted to do was spark a debate. what i don't think people realize is that the too big to fail banks are bigger now than

before the crisis. if you had watched the debates the other night, or the last three, you would think some kind of landmark financial reform has occurred. less than a third of it has been implemented and three quarters of the deadlines have been missed. i would argue our politicians don't even have an objective enough view in this. look at who funds the political campaigns. look at this revolving door where an arthur leavitt, or jack seaward who used to work for tim dpr geithner, they work for goldman sachs. how are you going to get retail investors back because it doesn't feel like an even playing field. i am of wall street. i believe there are great things that wall street does like raising money for companies, helping companies merge, advising people. but betting gens people without telling them? i think you just need to bring

the pendulum back and i would like to be a voice to shine transparency into what's wrong and fix it. >> you asked for and were denied, a million dollar bonus on top of your half a million dollar salary. several hundred thousand dollar salary like the goldman clients you cite are trying to make ends meet, how does wanting that level of compensation align with your personal values? >> there is a huge conversation on wall street, certainly, i was making a lot of money and was grateful for it. if i was concerned about enriching myself, i would have stayed at goldman sachs or left quietly. i would have gone to jpmorgan or morg morgan stanley or deutsche bank. >> you said they're doing

important things. raising money for businesses. merging businesses. raising money for individuals. are are you forgetting the positives and what wall street and the banks mean to america, the global economy? because this gets lost in the translation often. >> if you watched a commercial on tv for how wall street would like to portray they make money, you would believe they're making their money by helping companies merge or raising capital. the truth is, they make less than 10% of their money that way. the way they're making money is in the trading business and i think wall street needs to get back to the origin always of making money. the reason it was called finance is because it was about financing thipgs. >> all right. great to have you on the program. thank you so much. why i left goldman sachs. up next, why you should tackle unpleasant tasks first thing in the morning and other

tips from successful small business owners to put together in your life and you can find us on facebook, check out facebook.com/mariabartiromo. back in a moment.

65% of net new jobs created in the last decade, frequently cited by business candidates on both side of the aisle.

jj is a small business owner and host of "your business." her book is, "it's your business." great to have you op the program. >> thank you. great to be here. >> so, small businesses, dozens of times in the presidential debate, how do small business owners you speak to feel about being such a significant talking point? >> the first one, more than 25 times. so yes, the candidates are talking about them a lot. what i hear from small businesses though, they're not necessarily talking about me. they're, the fca defines a small business at 499 employees or less. i talk to a lot of people who are 50 employees, ten employees, one employee. >> how do they impact small business owners? >> the thing we hear most about

is extending the bush tax cuts. it is that very tiny percent. 3%. is that really where the job raeters are? >> that is what the romney campaign says. it's responsible for 700,000 jobs if we raise those, we're going to lose 700,000 jobs. >> very hard to get down to those numbers. how is business going for this small group that is responsible for such job creators? >> okay, it is definitely better than a few years ago. they're a lot of new exciting things, with the jobs act is going to be available sometime next year. optimism is up, but there's a lot of uncertainty and people say my biggest problem is demand. i need customers through the

door. for that to happen, the economy needs to get better. >> what about the expense side of the business. health care reform. businesses with less than 50 full time businesses are except from the requirements to offer health insurance or pay a penalty? >> exactly. but once you get to 50, 96% of businesses already offer health care, so the requirement they'll have to isn't going to change that much for most businesses. earlier in the show, basically, talk about your company, don't talk -- you need to talk about why you do it and that shows the emotion and that gets somebody emotionally connected. apple is really good with us. >> just to resognate with the customer. >> and to connect with them. i have a company, t a search

engine that donates to charity. explain why you do it. i'm empowering people to do good every day. >> that's great. so, some of your tips work for anyone to succeed. when someone offers to help, but specific with how they can. >> this is one of my favorites. he said when someone asks to help, you want to make it as easy as possible. they want to go back and get busy with whatever they were doing. can you make an introduction for me? come over on saturday and look at my financial? if you give them three things, they'll up the chance they can do one of them. >> tackle unpleasant tasks early in the morning. >> he said if you have something hanging over you, you're going

to be unproductive with everything you're doing that day. >> just face it. good to have you. "it's your business." up next, a look at the news this coming week that will have an impact on your money and if you're concerned about your information online, some advice to ensure your protected and it's not as easy as one, two, three. the worth passwords in the world when we come back. stay with us. block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

for more, check out the website, wsjr.cnbc.com. follow me twitter and google plus. earnings from chevron, pfizer, exxon mobil. also, ford, chrysler owned fiat. on tuesday, the kay schiller index will report on home prices and on thursday, we get the auto sales numbers for october and on friday, the highly anticipated jobs number will be released. unemployment stands at 7.8% and finally, following security breaches on sites like linkedin -- leased its annual list of the most common worst passwords accord to the hackers wolf gotten them in the past. the top five contain the most

sophisticated password as password and 123456. monkey, trust no one, ashley and jesus. if any of these are your passwords, i hope i don't have to tell you what to do right now. next week, the last big push before november 6th when america goes to the polling place to vote. keep it here, where wall street meets main street. have a great weekend, everybody. i'll see you again next weekend.